The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services should openly urge Congress to change the way therapy services are reimbursed, the nation's largest long-term care provider association stated in recent written comments to CMS Administrator Marilyn Tavenner.

Revenues from Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General audits and investigations for the the first half of fiscal 2014 are expected to drop almost $1 billion from the same period last year, bolstering previous revelations that dwindling federal funding for the agency could lead to less restrictive oversight in the year to come.

Medicare recovery audit contractors should face financial penalties when providers successfully challenge their decisions, Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA) stated in a recent letter to the head of the Health and Human Services Department.

Skilled nursing facilities have been filing more appeals related to Medicare Part A claim determinations since 2008, and the proportion of successful appeals has remained largely steady, according to a new government report.

Recovery audit contractors might be better at reviewing Medicare claims than critics allege, but the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services could improve RAC performance evaluations, according to a new government report.

Here's the good news for providers dealing with Recovery Audit Program contractors: The federal government will make fewer additional document requests, starting this month. Now the not-so-good news: The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services will not slow down other components of the auditing program.

Members of the Senate Finance Committee say they are concerned that the functions completed by independent contractors — known as recovery audit contractors (RACs) and Zone Program Integrity Contractors (PICs) — often overlap.

As skilled nursing facilities adjust to the changes to Medicare that arrived early last month, they must be ready for Recovery Audit Contractors. RACs are independent auditors for the government that are preparing to audit every facility that has submitted Medicare claims.

The rise in observational care in hospitals, which nursing home providers have criticized in recent weeks, is not the fault of the Medicare Recovery Audit Contractor program, according to a new report from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has fallen short in its efforts to prevent improper Medicare payments through the use of recovery audit contractors (RACs),a new Government Accountability Office report asserts.